The Craving

What is fame? The advantage of being known by people of whom you yourself know nothing, and for whom you care as little.”
Lord Byron (English Romantic poet and satirist, 1788-1824)

“Fame is a bee. / It has a song / It has a sting / Ah, too, it has a wing.”
Emily Dickinson (American Poet who has been called the New England mystic, 1830-1886)

If you come to fame not understanding who you are, it will define who you are.”
Oprah Winfrey (American television personality, Actress and Producer, b.1954)


Three generations of quotes about fame, each insightful in its own little way. “But what does fame have to do with Maximum Human Potential and my own life? “ You ask. “I’m not famous”

The quest for fame is internalized in a human being when,For e.g he buys a Lamborghini because he craves the attention he gets from it. Not because it’s his way of GENUINELY rewarding himself for his success born out of HARD WORK and his way of showing RESPECT TO HIMSELF/HERSELF for his/her ACTIONS.

The quest for fame encompasses many of a human’s internal defects on the quest to evolve or achieve happiness. A ‘bad boy rocker’ who associates the articles on his drug habits and womanizing ways with the attention he gets from other people is .... for all his apparent arrogance … putting his SELF ESTEEM and therby his character in the hands of those millions that seek to know more about his life. A consequence is that sometimes his music that he devoted endless hours in his parent’s garage perfecting suffers too and take a backstage to his fame.

A controversial celebrity example might be the relatively respectful attention the public gives to the ‘Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie’ team. A duo who seem to love their profession and devotes attention to causes that are not ‘themselves’ including raising an international brood from impoverished nations and social activism. Although their social activities generate considerably less interest than the curiousity to the ‘super baby’ the ‘genetically gifted duo’ brought into the world. They conversely are referred to with more ‘respect’ than a Paris Hilton or as of late Britney Spears.

We are all ‘dopamine addicts’. The ‘rush’ we feel when we get a promotion/trophy (bf/gf)/ flashy car and gives us elevated status or ‘fame’ in our organisation/peer group/family and addicted to that rush we start to associate these to the strength of our character.
Addicted we crave bigger and better versions of these to protect our fragile inner selves that siphon its strength from the fuel of other people’s energies. But like the principle of weight lifting aptly show’s us “For bigger muscles, you need more weights/protein/carbs etc”
The point is that during this process (when fame becomes the foundation of our life) we are not happy. We instinctively know that the secrets to happiness are PRINCIPLES. Correct Principles that prophets strived to instill in us, our parents (depending on their own strength of character) passed on or tried to beat in to us. The folk who say that all individuals are essential born good tend to be mostly correct. The principles of happy and effective living are ingrained to our very body and soul.

I’ll detail in the upcoming blogs what these principles are. But think back to that sinking feeling you got whenever you indulged in an action that you KNEW without any doubt was not in tandem with these principles and try to figure out what those correct principles you knew for most of your adult life are.